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History of Bollywood

The first films India watched were not made in Bollywood but cinema had indeed arrived on India’s shores.
The year was 1896, and thanks to the country’s colonial rulers, it was
the Lumiere Brothers who introduced the art of cinema to the
sub-continent. Bombay, as it was then called, was the first Indian city
to screen Cinematography, six short films by these cinematic pioneers.But
it was a portrait photographer called Harischandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar
who made Indian ‘motion picture' history. His short ‘reality’ film
screened in 1899 was called The Wrestlers and was a simple recording of a
local wrestling match.

It was only after the turn of the century
that Indian entertainment underwent a sea change when the Father of
Indian Cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke, released his pathbreaking film of the
Silent Era, Raja Harishchandra. The film, based on a mythological
character, was released in 1913 and was India’s first full-length
feature film. Yes, Bollywood had finally arrived!The
growth of technology and the excitement it generated the world over
eventually gave birth of India’s first ‘talking and singing’ film – Alam
Ara made by Ardeshir Irani and screened in Bombay in 1931.Finally,
India’s actors had found a voice. They could talk, they could shout,
they could even cry, and they could do one more thing – sing for their
audiences! It was a gift that remains the signature of the
quintessential Hindi film to date.Developments
in the world of Indian cinema were rapid and the 1930s and 1940s saw
the rise of film personalities such as Debaki Bose, Chetan Anand, S S
Vasan and Nitin Bose, among others.In
the meantime, the film industry had made rapid strides in the South,
where Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films were taking South India by storm.
By the late 1940s, films were being made in various Indian languages
with religion being the dominant theme.

India’s struggle for independence in the
1950s finally parted the curtain on the Golden Age of Indian cinema.
This historic period provided a strong impetus to the industry, with
themes changing to social issues relevant at the time. Sure they were
entertaining but the movies were now also a potent medium to educate the
masses.But
it was the Golden Age – 1950s and 1960s – that produced some of India’s
most critically acclaimed films and memorable actors of all time. Among
those in Bollywood’s hall of fame are Guru Dutt, Mehboob Khan, Raj
Kapoor, Balraj Sahani, Nargis, Bimal Roy, Meena Kumari, Madhubala and
Dilip Kumar.So
while the Guru Dutts and Bimal Roys held audiences in a trance, Indian
cinema moved one step further with the release of K Asif`s Mughal-e-Azam
in 1960. The film kickstarted a trail of romantic movies all over
India.While
Indian commercial cinema enjoyed popularity among movie-goers, Indian
art cinema did not go unnoticed. Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Ritwik Ghatak,
Aravindan, Satyajit Ray, Shaji Karun and several other art film
directors were making movies that took India to international fame and
glory.

The masala film – the quintessential
Bollywood entertainer – burst onto the scene only in the 1970s. And
audiences were enthralled by the histrionics of actors such as Rajesh
Khanna, Sanjeev Kumar, Waheeda Rehman, Asha Parekh, Tanuja and others.This
was Bollywood’s heyday, a time when director Ramesh Sippy gave us his
iconoclastic Sholay (1975). The film, which has been internationally
acclaimed, also clinched the title of ‘superstar’ for Amitabh Bachchan,
who already had well over 30 films under his belt by then.The
1980s saw the rise of several woman directors such as Aparna Sen, Prema
Karnath and Meera Nair. It was also the decade when sultry siren Rekha
wooed audiences with her stunning performance in Umrao Jaan (1981).

The 1990s ushered in a mixed genre of
romantic films, thrillers, action movies and comedy films. Gradually,
the face of Indian cinema was changing once again. Technology now gave
us Dolby digital sound effects, advanced special effects, choreography
and international appeal. This brought investments from the corporate
sector along with finer scripts and performances.It
was time to shift focus to aesthetic appeal. And stars like Shah Rukh
Khan, Rajnikanth, Madhuri Dixit, Aamir Khan, Chiranjeevi, Juhi Chawla
and Hrithik Roshan began to explore ways to use new techniques to enrich
Indian cinema with their performances.

Indian
cinema finally found global mass appeal at the turn of the 21st century.
As the world became a global village, the industry reached out further
to international audiences.Apart
from regular screenings at major international film festivals, the
overseas market contributes a sizeable chunk to Bollywood’s box office
collections. Investments made by major global studios such as 20th
Century Fox, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros was confirmation that
Bollywood had etched itself on the global psyche.Prominent
Indian corporate firms such as Zee, UTV and Adlabs also jumped onto the
Bollywood bandwagon, to both produce and distribute films. This coupled
with the multiplex boom across India made fame and fortune soar to new
heights.Such
was the excitement in the industry that by 2003, as many as 30 film
production companies had been listed on the National Stock Exchange.Cinema
in India remains the single largest entertainer to date. And despite
technology such as Direct-to-Home TV bringing the movies straight into
the living room, the marquee still rules.